Iran warns E3 nations: Triggering snapback will mean 'losing it all'
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Iran warns E3 nations against triggering the snapback mechanism as it prepares for the IAEA General Conference in Vienna.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi sign an agreement to open the way for resuming cooperation, at Tahrir Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025 (AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned the E3 nations that triggering the snapback mechanism would cause them to lose their last remaining card.
It is not just that the E3 has no legal, political, or moral entitlement to invoke "snapback", and that even if they did, "use or lose it" doesn't work.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) September 13, 2025
It's that the correct expression for the E3's dilemma is "use it *and* lose it". Or better yet, "use it and lose it *all*".
In a post on X, the Iranian foreign minister stated that the E3 is not entitled to invoke snapback on legal, political, or moral grounds. He dismissed the "use it or lose it" framing of their dilemma, asserting that the correct interpretation is "use it and lose it," or more severely, "use it and lose it all."
On September 13, the head of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Ebrahim Azizi, stated that Tehran could potentially withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) should European nations proceed with triggering the snapback mechanism.
The snapback clause, inserted into UN Security Council Resolution 2231, has long been criticized in Tehran as a political tool allowing France, Germany, and the UK to reimpose sanctions unilaterally, even while those same states have failed to deliver on their obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal. With the mechanism set to expire in October 2025, the European troika has threatened to act before that deadline, citing Iran’s peaceful enrichment program, despite Iran repeatedly affirming it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons.
Iran to push forward resolution to condemn Israeli-US attack on nuclear facilities
Araghchi's post comes ahead of the 69th IAEA conference in Vienna on Monday, which Iran will participate in after relations were re-established between the nuclear watchdog and Tehran.
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, provided details on Iran's participation in the annual International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference, announcing that the 69th IAEA General Conference will commence tomorrow in Vienna.
Eslami announced that Iran will be present at the Vienna conference to push forward a resolution to condemn the Israeli-US attack on Tehran's nuclear facilities.
On September 12, the Iranian foreign minister confirmed that a new agreement had been reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency, establishing a new framework for their cooperation, which includes the agency's formal acknowledgment that the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities were illegal.
He also stressed that the agreement would not allow for the inspection of the facilities that were attacked and that IAEA inspectors would be prohibited from accessing any nuclear site without first receiving authorization from Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
